diff --git a/qemu-nbd.c b/qemu-nbd.c
index 9bb9cb7f61..ca4a724d25 100644
--- a/qemu-nbd.c
+++ b/qemu-nbd.c
@@ -509,6 +509,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
     const char *export_name = NULL;
     const char *tlscredsid = NULL;
     bool imageOpts = false;
+    bool writethrough = true;
 
     /* The client thread uses SIGTERM to interrupt the server.  A signal
      * handler ensures that "qemu-nbd -v -c" exits with a nice status code.
@@ -535,7 +536,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
                 exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
             }
             seen_cache = true;
-            if (bdrv_parse_cache_flags(optarg, &flags) == -1) {
+            if (bdrv_parse_cache_mode(optarg, &flags, &writethrough) == -1) {
                 error_report("Invalid cache mode `%s'", optarg);
                 exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
             }
@@ -849,6 +850,8 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
     }
     bs = blk_bs(blk);
 
+    blk_set_enable_write_cache(blk, !writethrough);
+
     if (sn_opts) {
         ret = bdrv_snapshot_load_tmp(bs,
                                      qemu_opt_get(sn_opts, SNAPSHOT_OPT_ID),